Effectiveness of Positive Thinking Training on Perceived Stress, Metacognitive Beliefs, and Death Anxiety in Women with Breast Cancer

Women with breast cancer suffer high levels of stress due to their disease-induced emotional, cognitive, behavioral and physical problems which increase their metacognitive beliefs, death anxiety, and rumination, disrupt the treatment process, and exert a negative impact. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of positive thinking training on perceived stress, metacognitive beliefs, and death anxiety in women with breast cancer in Ahvaz in 2019.

This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design. Statistical population consisted of all women with breast cancer visiting Shafa Health Center of Ahvaz in 2019, among whom 30 women were selected as the sample using convenience sampling. Cancer patients were randomly divided into intervention (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The research instruments included the Perceived Stress Scale, the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30), and the Scale of Death Anxiety (SDA). Univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance were used to analyze data.

Results suggested that positive thinking training reduced perceived stress, metacognitive beliefs and death anxiety in women with breast cancer in the intervention group compared with those in the control group (P<0.001).

According to the results of the study, positive thinking training was effective in reducing perceived stress, metacognitive beliefs, and death anxiety in women with breast cancer.